He has dedicated more than two decades of his life to the hunt for the elusive Loch Ness monster, spending 60 hours a week on the water.

And now George Edwards believes he has finally fulfilled his ambition of spotting 'Nessie'; he even photographic evidence to prove it.

Mr Edwards, who has spent 26 years on his quest, managed to capture this image of a dark hump slinking in and out of the lake's waters from the deck of his boat, Nessie Hunter, before it vanished back into the deep.

He claims the picture is the best-ever taken of the Loch Ness Monster and proves once and for all that
the elusive leviathan exists - and is definitely not a sturgeon.

Last October, the man who took a picture billed as 'the best ever taken of the Loch Ness monster' admitted it was a fake. George Edwards, 61, insisted the image, pictured, published worldwide in August 2012 had been 'just a bit of fun'. The alleged shots of the monster had, in fact, been a fibre glass hump

'Unequivocal': George, left, says he has even had the picture independently verified by a team of US military monster experts as well as a Nessie sighting specialist

He says he has even had it
independently verified by a team of US military monster experts as well
as a Nessie sighting specialist.

Mr Edwards spends his life on the loch -
around 60 hours a week - taking tourists out on his boat Nessie Hunter
IV, and has led numerous Nessie hunts over the years.

'I was just about to return to Temple
Pier (in Drumnadrochit) and I went to the back of the boat which was
facing the pier and that’s when I saw it,' said 60-year-old Mr Edwards, a
lifelong believer in the monster.

'It was slowly moving up the loch towards Urquhart Castle and it was a dark grey colour. It was quite a fair way from the boat, probably about half a mile away but it’s difficult to tell in water.'

After watching the object for five to ten minutes, Mr Edwards said it slowly sank below the surface and never resurfaced.

'I’m convinced I was seeing Nessie as I believe in these creatures. Far too many people have being seeing them for far too long,' he said.

'The first recorded sighting was in 565AD and there have been thousands of eye witness reports since then.

'All these people can’t be telling lies. And the fact the reports stretch over so many years mean there can’t just be one of them. I’m convinced there are several monsters.'

Steve Feltham, who has dedicated the past 21 years to hunting for Nessie was unequivocval. 'It is the best photograph I think I have ever seen,' he said.

From his base on Dores beach and has studied many Nessie sighting photographs.

'I think the images are fantastic - that’s the animal I have been looking for all this time,' he said yesterday.

'I would say it doesn’t prove what Nessie is, but it does prove what Nessie isn’t, a sturgeon which is a fish that has been put forward as one of the main explanations as to what Nessie could be but this hasn’t got a serrated spine like the sturgeon.

Mr Edwards attempted to use his vessel’s sonar to make a contact but to no avail.

Claim: At the time, Mr Edwards said he saw the monster slowly moving up the loch towards Urquhart Castle, pictured, before submerging under water after around 10 minutes

'I hung around for a good half-an-hour and used the deep scanning sonar to try and pick it up, but I’m afraid I had no luck at all.'

Mr Edwards took the photo at 9am on 2nd November last year on a compact Samsung digital camera that he always keeps on the boat.

Before releasing it publicly he sent it to the USA for analysis, though he can’t reveal further details.

'I did not want to mention my sighting until I was sure that I had not photographed a log or something inanimate in the water,' he said. 'I have friends in the USA who have friends in the military.

'They had my photo analysed and they have no doubt that I photographed an animate object in the water. I was really excited as I am sure that some strange creatures are lurking in the depths of Loch Ness.'

LOCH NESS MONSTER: 80 YEARS OF SIGHTINGS

The Loch Ness Monster has been a subject of mass intrigue and debate since it came to
the world's attention in 1933.

Scientists have widely written off the idea as a modern-day myth and continued sightings as set ups and wishful thinking.

Yet it has remained a contested phenomenon for almost 80 years.

Perhaps the most famous picture of
Nessie was taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist (pictured left). It
was published in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934.

The picture showed what looked like a long neck and head rising from the water.

However, it turned out to be a toy submarine bought from Woolworths with a head and neck made of wood in an elabourate hoax by big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell in an act of revenge on the newspaper that had ridiculed him over his hapless search for the beast.

The earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St Columba by Adomnán, written in the 7th century.

St Columba, an Irish monk, had sent a disciple into the loch to prove there was nothing there. But the monster rose and chased the man snapping at his heels.

But it fled in terror 'as if pulled back by ropes' when St Columba made the sign of the cross and commanded: 'Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once.'

Marmaduke Wetherell, seated, is pictured studying a chart of the Loch Ness in a search for the Loch Ness Monster. He was said to have faked the most famous picture in revenge for bad publicity

In November 1933, Hugh Gray was the first to picture something splashing in the water.

Four
stumpy-looking objects on the bottom of the creature's body appeared to
look like appendages, such as flippers. It was later suggested the
creature was a dog, possibly holding a stick.

In 1938, G. E. Taylor, a South African tourist, filmed something in the loch for three minutes on 16 mm colour film.

His picture was declared 'positive evidence' by a famous biologist and cryptozoologist.

In 1960, aeronautical engineer Tim Dinsdale filmed a hump crossing the water leaving a powerful wake.

Dinsdale allegedly spotted the animal on
his last day hunting for it, and described the object as reddish with a
blotch on its side.

In May 2007, Gordon Holmes, a
55-year-old lab technician, captured video of what he said was 'this jet
black thing, about 45 feet long, moving fairly fast in the water'.

The film, though, has been cast into
doubt. Holmes has been criticised for claiming the existence of
fairies. Another expert later claimed the film actually shows otters
swimming in the loch.

Questions: This is the sonar image that revived belief that there's something unexplained out there, taken by skipper Marcus Atkinson in February

In February 2012, a sonar image of a
large mystery object deep below the surface of Loch Ness netted boat
skipper Marcus Atkinson the Best Nessie Sighting of The Year Award - the
first time in several years it has been presented by bookmaker William
Hill.

The sonar picture, that shows a large
unidentified living object deep underwater, was recorded by Loch Ness
boat skipper Marcus Atkinson.

Mr Atkinson’s
sonar fish-finder device records the width of objects in the depths
directly below his tourist boat every quarter of a second.